Engineering drawings are widely used to ensure that articles are fabricated to known specifications. Thus, a draftsman makes a scale-drawing of an article to be manufactured. The drawing, when properly drafted, provides a suitable tool for communicating to manufacturing personnel the exact nature, and sometimes the standards to be used, in fabricating the article or articles represented by the drawing.
Manufacturing personnel use the drawing as the basis from which the article is manufactured. Thus, manufacturing personnel scale the drawing in order to ascertain general size, shape, angles radii, and is the like, which information is needed to create that particular something which is represented by the drawing.
Such drawings can be used to represent a wide variety of subjects including, without limitation, chemical structures, electrical circuits, industrial goods, transportation goods, construction projects such as roads, bridges, and buildings, and consumer goods and the like.
In view of the fact that such engineering drawings are used to ensure proper sizing, shape, materials, and the like, creating such drawings is an exacting task requiring a high level of skill, and suitable engineering tools.
Various tools and instruments, hereinafter collectively referred to as xe2x80x9cinstruments,xe2x80x9d are available to assist the draftsman in creating engineering drawings. For example, such tools and instruments as a T-square, a protractor, one or more scales, a ruler, and one or more triangles may be utilized in the completion of a single drawing.
Similarly, manufacturing and like personnel read and interpret such drawings in order to make, repair, or use, etc. the article or project represented by the drawing. Just as the draftsman must be precise in creating the drawing, so must the user be precise in interpreting the drawing. Accordingly, just as the draftsman uses a variety of tools and instruments in creating the drawing, so does the user also utilize a variety of tools and instruments in interpreting the drawing.
It is conventionally known for a given craftsperson to employ a plurality of tools and instruments, such as those described above, whether for creating a single drawing or for interpreting a single drawing. Namely, it is common to use a variety of tools and/or instruments in either the creation or the interpretation of any one drawing. Where several tools and/or instruments may be required for creating or interpreting a given drawing, the larger the number of tools and/or instruments desired to be used, the greater the probability that at least one of such tools and instruments will be misplaced, broken, be in use by another worker, or otherwise unavailable, whereby the work may be stopped or truncated, or the work may be done without use of one or more of the proper tools and instruments. If a needed tool or instrument is not available, and the work is done without the tool, e.g. in order to meet a deadline, those checks and balances are lost, which checks and balances generally accompany use of the proper tools, along with corresponding assurance of the quality of the work.
In view of the wide variety of tools and instruments typically used to create and/or interpret engineering drawings, it is desirable to provide a multi-function engineering instrument or tool, which can replace multiple conventional engineering instruments or tools.
The present invention provides an engineering instrument incorporating therein a plurality of drafting and interpreting capabilities, obviating the need for certain combinations of the conventionally available drafting and engineering tools, in addition to providing a number of function combinations never before available in a single engineering instrument.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a multifunctional see-thru engineering instrument useful in performing a variety of drafting, scaling, and other engineering tasks.
It is another object of the invention to provide a multifunctional see-thru engineering instrument which, by virtue of combined length and width of such instrument, can perform the functions of a T-square, thus eliminating the need to work off the edge of a drafting table or the like.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a see-thru engineering instrument wherein one or more lines in the body of the instrument can be used as reference lines for drawing parallel lines.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide, in such instrument, a protractor having an origin at an edge of such engineering instrument, and no open arc about the angle markings described by the protractor.
It is a further object of the invention to provide at least one reference line extending at an angle of 45 degrees to a side edge of such engineering instrument.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide up to four scales in association with one or more edges of such engineering instrument wherein the measuring scales have a corresponding number of scale sizes, for making measurements on drawings drawn to respective such scale sizes.
Another object of the invention is to provide a see-thru engineering instrument having markings defining longitudinal reference lines disposed inwardly of the edges of the instrument.
The invention generally comprises a see-thru engineering instrument, preferably a transparent engineering instrument. In a first family of embodiments, such see-thru engineering instrument has a length and a width, defining an overall area of the engineering instrument, first and second longitudinal side edges along the length of the engineering instrument, and third and fourth end edges along the width of the engineering instrument. The engineering instrument has markings, defining at least first and second longitudinal reference lines along the length of the instrument, the reference lines being disposed inwardly of the first and second side edges, the first reference line defining a segmentation pattern distinguishing the first reference line, as a distance measurement reference, from the second reference line, according to segmentation patterns of the two reference lines.
Preferred such engineering instruments have a front surface for disposition away from a work piece to be marked, and a back surface for disposition toward a work piece to be marked, the back surface having a matte finish. The markings on the instrument are preferably located closer to the back surface than to the front surface, and are most preferably located closely adjacent the back surface.
The width of preferred embodiments of the engineering instrument is greater than 3 inches, more preferably about 4 inches.
The length of preferred embodiments of the engineering instrument is greater than 12 inches, more preferably about 13 inches.
The thickness is preferably at least about {fraction (1/16)} inch.
In a highly preferred embodiment, the length of the engineering instrument is 12.98 inches, the width is 3.98 inches.
In some embodiments, the markings include a grid of squares, marked over less than 50% of the overall area of the engineering instrument, the grid generally comprising lines defining square blocks xe2x85x9 inch on each side.
Some embodiments include first, second, third and fourth different scales. Preferably, the four scales are a full size scale, a xc2xd size scale, a xc2xc size scale, and a xe2x85x9 size scale.
The scales preferably include respective numbering sets corresponding to the respective scales, each scale being different from each other of the scales, the first and second scales being disposed in association with the first side edge, the third and fourth scales being disposed in association with the second longitudinal side edge. The scales can, however, be rearranged in a variety of patterns for association, respectively, of any of the scales with any of the edges of the instrument.
Some embodiments include yet another, or a substitute, scale which is a {fraction (1/16)} size scale.
In some embodiments the markings include at least three transverse lines spaced like distances preferably no less than I centimeter apart, preferably 1 inch apart, and preferably spanning substantially the entire width of the engineering instrument.
Some of the preferred embodiments comprehend the first reference line being comprised in a first set of reference lines defining a first segmentation pattern, the second reference line being comprised in a second set of reference lines defining a second segmentation pattern, different from the first segmentation pattern.
In highly preferred embodiments, the first reference lines of the first set and the second reference lines of the second set are interposed each between respective ones of the other.
Preferably, the first reference lines are spaced a first common distance, e.g. xc2xd inch, apart and the second reference lines are spaced a second common distance, e.g. xc2xd inch, apart. A third set of longitudinally-extending reference lines defines third segmentation patterns different from the first and second segmentation patterns. The third reference lines are preferably spaced a third common distance, e.g. xc2xc inch, apart.
In preferred embodiments, respective ones of the second and third reference lines define line segments defining specific line lengths of less than 1 inch. The line segments may define discrete measurable line segment lengths of one or more of xe2x85x9, xc2xc, xc2xd and xc2xe inch. Preferably, the second line defines line segments having lengths of xe2x85x9 inch and xc2xe inch.
Overall, the invention comprehends line segments in a single engineering instrument, defining discrete measurable distances of any one, up to all, of {fraction (1/16)}, xe2x85x9, {fraction (3/16)}, xc2xc, xc2xd, xc2xe, {fraction (13/16)}, xe2x85x9e and {fraction (15/16)} inch, including all length dimensions and combinations in between.
In some embodiments, the engineering instrument has a column of at least three number characters disposed along the width of the engineering instrument and indicating dimensions along the width of the engineering instrument, the characters preferably being spaced at equidistant intervals representing distances of e.g. one inch, though a wide variety of other spacing intervals is contemplated.
Some embodiments contemplate transverse lines, spaced e.g. 1 inch apart, extending across the width of the engineering instrument at right angles to the first side edge, whereby the transverse lines cross the first reference lines at respective e.g. one-inch intervals. Namely, the first reference line can comprise an uninterrupted, though crossed, single line segment extending substantially the full length of the engineering instrument without substantial break in such line.
Preferably, the second reference lines comprise longitudinally-spaced line segments of alternating relatively longer lengths and relatively shorter lengths, and the third reference lines comprise longitudinally-spaced line segments of equal length.
In some embodiments, the markings include at least one marking line extending at an angle of 45 degrees to e.g. one of the longitudinal side edges.
The markings may define a protractor on the engineering instrument, the protractor having an origin associated with e.g. one of the first and second longitudinal side edges.
In preferred embodiments, the markings are disposed closer to the back surface than to the front surface of the instrument.
In a second family of embodiments, a see-thru engineering instrument comprises markings defining a first measuring scale associated with the first side edge, a protractor having an origin associated with one of the first and second side edges, and a grid comprising lines defining squares associated with one of the side and end edges, the grid extending inwardly away from the respective edge, and covering no more than ⅔, preferably no more than xc2xd, of the overall area of the engineering instrument. Preferred members of such family embody all the above mentioned combinations of instrument structures and functions.
In a third family of embodiments, such see-thru engineering instrument comprises markings defining a first measuring scale associated with the first side edge; and a second measuring scale, at least three inches long and extending along one of the end edges, wherein the engineering instrument has a length/width ratio of at least 2/1.